The U.S. Army has decided on a new vehicle mounted radio for its combat units. The MNVR (Mid-Tier Networking Vehicular Radio) provides networking (including Internet-like capabilities) to army units.

MNVR is a replacement for the JTRS (Joint Tactical Radio System) Ground Mobile Radio (GMR), which was cancelled in 2011. The GMR program cost over $6 billion and was a major embarrassment for the U.S. Department of Defense. Actually, JTRS still exists, on paper, but its goal, to provide better combat radios, has been accomplished by adopting civilian radios that do what the troops needed done and calling it JTRS. That’s what the new MNVR does as it is a modified commercial radio. In the time the army spent working on JTRS some $11 billion was spent on buying more radios using existing designs and a lot of off-the-shelf equipment incorporating stuff JTRS was supposed to do.

If the military sticks to what works, and does not make the kind of demands and requests that sunk JTRS, the MNVR should arrive on time and functional enough for the troops.

JTRS was yet another example of a military development project that got distracted, and bloated, trying to please everyone.

The Pentagon was very reluctant to admit error, or defeat, in these matters. The procurement bureaucrats tend to feel it's much better to spend billions more and let the needed equipment arrive late and missing important capabilities. It's something of a tradition. And you know how some people in the military, even Pentagon civilians, can be about tradition.

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